Medical diagnostic imaging systems often store read-only data that is accessed during the normal workflow of the system. For example, ultrasound imaging systems can store imaging performance data sets in text files on a hard disk. By storing the data in a text file, the manufacturer can effectively “tune” the data without having to write and re-write software. However, because these data sets are quite large, runtime performance becomes sluggish due to inefficiencies in reading data from the hard disk. To combat this, the data can be cached during system start-up so that the data is accessed from random access memory, which is much more efficient than disk access. This approach moves the performance penalty from the user's normal workflow to system start-up. However, lengthening start-up time is often not acceptable, especially in portable systems.
There is a need, therefore, for a medical diagnostic imaging system and method for efficient access of data.